Aerospace and Defense
High Energy Devices is an experienced supplier to the Aerospace and Defense Industry. Triggered spark gaps have played a key role in capacitor discharge applications and exploding bridge-wire circuits in space travel and missile applications. HED triggered spark gaps are used as the switching device in the EBW circuits for ignition and stage separation.
Triggered gaps can be used in any application that requires stored energy to be switched into a load. The TA and mini TX Series of ceramic-metal triggered spark gaps have been designed to fill the need for low and medium voltage applications. These gaps, in addition to being small and extremely rugged, have excellent time delay, low jitter, long life and good resistance to nuclear radiation.
Providing solutions for a wide variety of applications:
Two Electrode Spark Gaps
Missile Launching
A specialized UBD device was selected to protect critical launch circuits in the Patriot Missile System.
Radar Jamming
The PMT(301) has been designed into the F-16 aircraft for the purpose of protecting high voltage components in aircraft radar jamming devices.
Submarine Telecom Repeaters/Submarine Cable Protection
The PMT(301) is used for submarine telecom repeater surge voltage protection while the UBT Series has been used for protecting the high voltage power supply in submarines.
Surveillance Radar
Based upon a request from a global aerospace company, HED customized the original UBD spark gap into a more durable and robust device for protection of the screen grid of the power output tube. This redesign has resulted in significantly less field failures.
Three Electrode Triggered Spark Gaps
High Reliability Trigger Discharge
Triggered spark gaps, such as the TA/TB Series, have proven to be excellent solutions for applications requiring high reliability discharge.
Missile Firing Systems
The mini TX Series is used as a triggering device for high reliability discharge applications such as missile launching circuits. These subminiature triggered spark gaps were designed and developed specifically for the Longbow Hellfire Missile System and are available with main static breakdowns between 1.0 and 7.5kVdc.
Missile Stage Separation
The TA or TX Series spark gap is used as a switching device in a basic exploding bridge wire (EBW) circuit. The circuit is designed to minimize the wiring resistance and inductance to transfer the maximum energy to the explosive in the shortest possible time.